


In the eye of the hurricane (there is quiet)

by stellarel



Series: Dancing on the edge of a storm [2]
Category: Doctor Who, Doctor Who (2005)
Genre: F/F, Fake/Pretend Relationship, Fluff, Mutual Pining, The Doctor Dances, Undercover as a Couple
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-06-15
Updated: 2020-06-15
Packaged: 2021-03-04 03:28:20
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,867
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24736939
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/stellarel/pseuds/stellarel
Summary: On an undercover mission, before things go south, there's just the golden ballroom.And the Doctor dances.
Relationships: Thirteenth Doctor/Reader
Series: Dancing on the edge of a storm [2]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1749343
Comments: 5
Kudos: 39





	In the eye of the hurricane (there is quiet)

"Kepler 7B. Very Earth-like. You'll feel right at home." The Doctor talks quietly, softly guiding you to the line of people (or, well, beings) that were slowly drifting towards some sort of a ballroom. 

All you could see was golden lights, glittering chandeliers and extravagant dresses, suits, capes, anything imaginable. Glitter and gold, shimmering fabrics, and jewelry that looked more expensive than anything you'd gotten used to.

"-They have excellent tea down there. The air humidity isn't quite as high as on Earth, so the plants reserve all their flavor and nutrients better." The Doctor continues her explanation as you take in the surroundings. 

Walking up to the door, the Doctor flashes her psychic paper to who you were guessing to be some sort of a guard. "Doctor and Mrs. Smith." She says casually, and the guard - a tall, muscular, green-skinned being - looks over the paper without responding.

Then, the guard steps aside, letting you pass. 

The Doctor had cooked up a fake backstory for you - supposedly, you were a few steps down from the royals on the Sagittarius system, in charge of the charity and humanitarian aid around there. Apparently, this was believable enough, because nobody seemed to question it.

For a moment, the Doctor was glad she hadn't had much time to run around with this face, yet - made it easier to go undercover, even if it was a little annoying that she seemed to have to keep proving herself to people. 

Walking into the room, she loops her arm around you gently, pulling you closer to her. 

You didn't know who you were looking for - only that there was someone trying to throw the ship off course, and according to the Doctor, they were probably wearing a perception filter. So, it could be anyone, really.

As far as plans went, ' _blend in and look out for anything suspicious_ ', didn't seem that waterproof, but it was the best you could do, for now.

"Let's just keep out eyes out for trouble." The Doctor says quietly, leaning closer to you. You can feel her breath tickle the side of your neck, and you do your best to ignore this. "And if past records are anything to go by, trouble seems to find us sooner or later, anyways." 

You smile at this a little. She wasn't wrong.

The hall is big - bigger than you'd expect from a spaceship - but then again, maybe that was just your 21st century brain speaking, having gotten used to hearing things about how crammed things were on the ISS and other man made space shuttles.

There is a live band, and the music is strangely familiar, in a way - not like anything you'd heard before, but it's still more familiar than what you were expecting. 

"Care for a dance, Mrs. Smith?" The Doctor asks, with her eyes sparkling and with a small smirk on her lips. She's obviously put on her undercover voice, too - it's more playful, somehow lighter than her usual way of speaking. 

She offers you her hand, standing in a strangely official looking stance, with her other hand behind her back.

You tilt your head. "You know how to dance?"

"I suppose so. According to my empiric studies, at least some of the muscle memory transfers from one body to the next one. I don't see why dancing wouldn't." 

You can't help but smile at this a little. 

"So you used to, at least?"

She licks her lips. "Yes."

"Well, I guess we'll find out if that was one of the things that stuck." You give her a soft smile, take her hand, and she grins.

She pulls you to the dance floor, and in one fluid movement, her hand is on your waist, and soon she's settled into whatever alien waltz the rest of the couples were doing. With some old instincts, you place your hand on her shoulder, and in the middle of the swirling and the swaying, she smiles at you. 

And for a moment, everything is soft, glowing golden - the lights, her hair, her eyes - and your heart. 

For a moment, there's nothing but the movement, the music, and her. 

And maybe you shouldn't have been so concentrated on the way her hand on the dip of your waist felt, but - well. You're only human. 

All too soon, the song is over, and all the couples on the dance floor dissipate. You, too, pull apart, and the Doctor smiles at you, with the brightness of a thousand suns. 

"Seems like I still got it."

Your heart is trying to beat out of your chest, and you can't quite find the words to answer, so you just smile back at her and nod.

She looks around for a moment, and then heads to the edge of the room. You follow her, and soon, you cross paths with Yaz, who is carrying around a tray of quietly bubbling drinks in strangely shaped champagne flutes. The Doctor picks up two of these, offering one to you.

"Everything going smoothly?" She asks quietly, trying to make it look like she wasn't talking to Yaz. 

"If by ' _smoothly_ ' you mean that we haven't crashed yet, then yes." Yaz answers, through a smile that looked remarkably fake.

She hadn't been that happy about the nonexistent plan of _just keeping your eyes open_ either.

Then, she takes a breath, and looks around the room. "Though Graham did immediately attract some guy complaining about how much he hates this place. Might want to look into that." 

The Doctor's face has settled into a slightly worried frown. "Was the guy wearing a green suit by any chance?"

Yaz furrows her brows for half a second. "I- yeah. How'd you know?"

The Doctor licks her lips and tilts her head a little, nodding towards the dance floor. "Dancing. The whole swirling around the room thing is really good for scoping out your surroundings. I noticed the perception filter." She explains, without looking either of you in the eyes.

You try your best to ignore the way this breaks your heart a little, and you concentrate on sipping the sparkling drink of something, letting it serve as a distraction. 

You had really let your soft little human heart enjoy the dance, and she - she had just used it as a surveillance tactic.

"Keep your eyes open." The Doctor nods at Yaz, who soon disappears back into the crowd. 

Then, she grabs your hand and pulls you towards a doorway, navigating through the room surprisingly smoothly.

It leads to a quiet hallway, and she looks around for a moment. Then, she digs around her pockets, fishing out the sonic screwdriver and points it at one of the panels on the wall. 

"What are you doing?" You ask, leaning to the wall next to her.

"Snooping on the travel log records. They all go through the router in the control panel behind this wall, so if I can just-" 

The panel on the wall cracks open, and she grins. "Yes! Result. I'll just check the history quickly, stand on guard, will you? It shouldn't take long."

You take a breath and lean lean off of the wall, moving to a place from where you could keep an eye on the doorway. "Okay."

For a few minutes, everything goes smoothly. Out of the corner of your eye, you could still see the golden bustling of the ballroom, hear the music faintly, now overlaid by the soft whirring of the sonic screwdriver.

And then you hear footsteps. 

"Doctor?" You whisper quietly, and she makes a quiet humming sound as a vague response. "Someone's coming." You move out of the doorway and closer to her.

She doesn't seem to really register what's happening. "Someone's coming, Doctor. What do we do?" 

"I'll figure something out." She says, without taking her eyes off the control panel. "Don't worry about it."

You were, in fact, worrying about it, and her lack of action didn't help at all. The footsteps were getting closer, and you looked around, trying to see if there was a way out or a place to hide, or-

Nothing. There's nowhere to go. 

And the footsteps were getting too close for comfort. 

So you take a deep breath and when the Doctor doesn't _do anything,_ you decide to take action instead. 

With your heartbeat drumming away in your ears, you walk to her, grab her by the suspenders, and with one clumsy movement, crash your back to the wall, to the control panel, and pull her to you. 

She makes a quiet, surprised sound, and her eyes widen. "What are you doing?" She asks, and her voice sounds hollow, somehow. Higher than usual.

"Giving us a reason to be back here." You whisper back, giving her a sharp look, hoping she could work out what you were planning. 

She stares at you, and you could practically see the wheels turn inside her head. " _Oh_." She breathes out, and like before, one of her hands settles to your waist. 

You slip one hand to the back of her neck, and she _shivers,_ and it sends something warm down your spine. 

Her eyes flicker to the doorway, just for half a second. Then, she looks at you again, licks her lips, and leans down and kisses you. 

She _kisses_ you, and for a second, you let yourself forget that it's all because of some stupid cover story. 

It makes your heart ache.

You breathe out, melting into her, and her grip on your waist tightens, just a little, and it feels like heaven. 

Like _safety_.

She presses closer to you, and your every nerve ending is fizzing with energy, and she is warm and she smells like vanilla and tastes like champagne-

And then, all too soon, she pulls away. 

The loss of contact makes you feel like your heart might cave in on itself, and you try your best to conceal this.

Try your best to pretend like that didn't just make your whole brain short-circuit.

"They're gone." She says, with a strange tint of _something_ in her voice. Then, she turns her eyes away from you and swallows. "Good plan. I was just going to talk to them, but that works, too. Good distraction." 

You take a deep breath, trying to clear your head, and take a step away from the wall.

"Yeah." You lick your lips and do your best to avoid her eyes. It's not very hard, since she seems to be doing the same thing.

"You done with the history yet?" You ask, trying to change the subject before things got awkward. 

She studies the sonic screwdriver for a moment, and then nods quietly. "Control deck 3 seems to have something shady going on. We should go check it out."

"What kind of shady?"

"An externally added override program. Changing the flight path. Seems like just the thing we're looking for, don't you think?"

You nod quietly, and make a vague hand gesture, letting her lead the way. She smiles, and does a little twirl, and clasps her hands together, and you try your very best not to think about what her hands felt like on your body.

**Author's Note:**

> Listen, this whole series is just a dumpster fire. I know. I didn't write these in the right order at all. But hey, timey wimey, right?


End file.
